Carlton Supporters Club

You need to update your knowledge base, water isn't part of the cooling system of modern nuclear because at high temperature and velocity water becomes hyper corrosive.

Old archaic designs fundamentally spend a huge chunk of there time managing and disposing of sacrificial anodes / cathodes to prevent the cooling water eroding critical components, coal and gas have the very same issue. For reference hot fast flowing water is even more corrosive than the molten salts being used.

But of course you must know this, because if your claims that modern thermal power generation needs lots of water were true then Solar Thermal would also be dead and buried here is Oz, but because it fundamentally uses the same molten salt technology harness heat energy as modern thorium or modular nuclear reactor designs it is viable.

Modern modular reactors are self contained and fully enclosed, they are referred to as nuclear batteries and are water free, much like the devices on aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, space probes, etc., etc., the a standalone unit that can be swapped in and out of service with a standard crane. There are several projects running right now to improve the weight and mobility, so they can be dropped by helicopter or heavy lift aircraft into disaster zones restoring power in hours or days instead of weeks or months. The only difference between that emergency operation and suburban energy is scale, like a single battery versus a bank of batteries.

Oh dear, here’s another video from Sabine Hossenfelder, a serious scientist and very smart person exposing the myths around the hydrogen economy debate:

Hydrogen won’t save us: here’s why.

You've been reading too much sci fi LP 

Most planned Small Modular Reactors will be water-cooled as it's the cheapest and most reliable form of cooling.  The two Russian SMRs in operation are located on a floating power station for cooling purposes.

Nuclear-powered submarines and aircraft carriers use highly purified sea water for cooling.  The Russians used lead-bismuth for cooling but its corrosive and radiotoxic properties were too problematic. One US nuclear submarine was sodium-cooled but its reactor was replaced with a conventional pressurised water reactor within 12 months.

Up to 12 SMRs have to be clustered together to provide equivalent power to a conventional nuclear or fossil fuel power plant.  The advantage is that SMRs don't have to be constructed on site but can be assembled from modular components shipped to installation sites.  As SMRs weigh 500-700 tonnes, I think we're going to need a bigger helicopter 

Australia would be building them around the coast  near water supply and building them in safe areas to offset rising sea levels. You would expect Desalination and probably Hydrogen Production to also feature as part of any new builds and the latter of course feeds into greener energy solutions.

You are being quite selective in your choice of examples and language, is it deliberate or accidentally naive?

An SMR of the type you refer to is the 1980s version, originally proposed by GE, although few were built, the are several companies developing fast breeder reactors of that type to use U238.

What I'm referring to are modular thorium or pebble bed reactors, and they are the size of a small house at the biggest, and as explained in the video, further the generation currently being developed is about the size of the semi-trailor. Which is why they are sometimes referred to as nuclear batteries.

We are discussing 2020 technology, and you are telling us it's no good with 1980s example designs.

The world has moved on beyond 1980 and it is not science fiction! .

As for Mav he lists a video about hydrogen that he claims debunks hydrogen, but if I recall correctly Sabine's hydrogen video from a few months back actually states that hydrogen works with nuclear hand in glove, she actually makes that point twice, when she describes pink hydrogen and again when she summarise the future options. Which is consistent with her position that the solution to the world's problem must be as diverse as the problem.

DJC, you have to give up on only debating this at the high power end of the SMR range, your discussing systems that are the upper limit of SMR, I'm talking about systems designed to power 2000 to 3000 homes, 1/300th the size of the SMRs you are referring to, and not a drop of water being used in any of the designs.

As for Mav he lists a video about hydrogen that he claims debunks hydrogen, but if I recall correctly Sabine's hydrogen video from a few months back actually states that hydrogen works with nuclear hand in glove, she actually makes that point twice, when she describes pink hydrogen and again when she summarise the future options. Which is consistent with her position that the solution to the world's problem must be as diverse as the problem.

Horses for courses, you don't construct a building made out of steel, glass, bricks and timber by just hiring a carpenter.

Modern modular reactors are self contained and fully enclosed, they are referred to as nuclear batteries and are water free, much like the devices on aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, space probes, etc., etc.,

I'll make it easy for you; how are the reactors on the latest Virginia and Astute class nuclear powered submarines cooled?